"Jeff Findley" writes:

"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
What about us pro-science liberals who are glad to see Ares get the ax?

I think this is the right move.

Absolutely.

That said, rumor is that a shuttle derived HLV will emerge from the ashes of
this announcement and Orion will continue (without the lunar program). NASA
Spaceflight.com has a story along those lines on its front page today.

Jeff

I agree with this also. Although rather than Orion, I'd prefer to see the
development of a truly cost effective small shuttle (no payload bay) mounted
in line on an EELV, that could land nearly anywhere. Water landing capsules
are not going to be cheap to recover even if they can be reused.

Use a man-rated (whatever that means) Dragon as a phase one crew delivery
system until the mini-shuttle is ready.

Even after mini-shuttle is available there may be still good reasons to keep
using Dragon capsules, esp. as one-way delivery vehicles.

I was never a Constellation fan. I never saw how the program would sustain
itself w/o a Cold War imperative beyond a single administration. Even with
a Cold War imperative, Apollo couldn't do it. It would appear that history
is repeating itself.

With the return-to-the-moon distraction gone, we can now really for once
focus on the infrastructure rather than the destination. In effect I don't
see this as an ending at all, but truly a beginning.

Dave